Junior Transport Minister James Lawless has described as “positive and productive” a meeting with Aer Lingus management over the issue of the 32 million per year passenger limit at Dublin Airport.
The meeting, held last week with Aer Lingus chief executive Lynne Embleton and the airline’s chief corporate affairs officer Donal Moriarty, was the latest in a series of meetings the minister has held, in recent weeks, with chief stakeholders in Dublin Airport operations, about the passenger cap.
Speaking after the meeting, Minister Lawless said: “This was a positive and productive meeting. We had a constructive discussion about Aer Lingus’ business model, which uses Dublin Airport as a hub to connect traffic flows between Europe and North America. This approach supports our aviation policy objective to develop Dublin Airport as a hub airport. It is government policy to optimise our airport network to ensure maximum connectivity to the rest of the world.
“We discussed the challenges presented by the 32 million passenger cap and the impact that any restriction on night time movements at Dublin Airport would have on Aer Lingus’ business. We also discussed potential mitigations to limit the impact of the passenger cap.
“As I have said previously, my objective is to ensure that connectivity to and from Ireland can continue to grow. I believe this can be achieved in the short to medium term, through our other airports at Cork and Shannon which are ready and able to take more passengers.
“I will continue meeting with other stakeholders this week including the International Air Transport Association to hear their views and potential solutions on this matter, so that the impact of this constraint on the travelling public, business and tourism might be kept to a minimum. Along with my ministerial and government colleagues, I look forward to exploring fresh proposals to resolve this impasse.”
In recent weeks, Minister Lawless has met with Shannon and Cork airports, the daa, and Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary.
Mr O’Leary openly criticised the Department’s call for the regional airports to be used as an alternative to increased traffic at Dublin Airport and described his meeting with the Minister as being “not productive”.
